from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

n. an Indian dish made with highly seasoned rice and meat or fish or vegetables

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Examples

The Moroccan tagine is directly descended from the Persian khoresht stew, and India has taken both Persia's dishes and their names into its culture; Indian staples such as tandoori, nan bread, tikka, kebab, pilaf and biriani are all Persian words.

When you look back over life, the milestones of taste are surprisingly fresh: a first chicken biriani in the Taj Mahal, Oxford, circa 1958; a first baguette with tuna and tomato, Avignon, 1959; a first lasagne in Hugo's off Baker Street, 1962; a first Armenian kebab in Manchester, circa 1964; a first doner kebab in Peckham, 1969.

Because the ship docked in Bombay, Karachi and Colombo, there was also Indian food, a curry of the day described only by a town or region -- Goa, Madras, Delhi -- served with things I'd never heard of -- pappadom, chapatti, paratha, dal and biriani.

If they did stumble over it many would wonder why they should bother to make an already rich and powerfull politician any richer or any more powerfull unless there was free beer and biriani at the booth.

Because the ship docked in Bombay, Karachi and Colombo, there was also Indian food, a curry of the day described only by a town or region — Goa, Madras, Delhi — served with things I’d never heard of — papadum, chapatti, paratha, dal and biriani.